Book Review: Programming Flex 2

Programming Flex 2, by Chafic Kazoun and Joey Lott, is without a doubt my favorite book about Flex (and therefore the greatest ever written).

Even though I have mastered many of the techniques and concepts presented in the book, I still find myself using it as my primary Flex reference, second only to the API documentation.  The reason for that is that all the examples in the book are succinct and to the point (contrast this with C++/Java: How to Program by Paul and Harvey Deitel, which I loathe on account of the excessive code in the book.  Note to Paul and Harvey: reading the programs is NOTHING like ‘entering them and running them on a computer’… notwithstanding the Live-Code™ approach).  The short and sweet examples allow Kazoun and Lott to cover a remarkable breadth of topics in under 500 pages.

The main reason I love it so much is that I got it at the right time, which is to say my understanding of Flex and Actionscript was at the right level to receive maximum benefit from the book’s content.  I have a fairly solid background in software development, and I had just finished the tutorials on Flex Builder’s Start tab.  I just needed a reference to help me take it to the next level, and Programming Flex 2 really came through for me as far as that was concerned.

The first chapter that really benefitted me at this stage was chapter 7, “Working with UI Components”.  It was more interesting to read than the API documentation, but provided enough details to expand my understanding of working with various components.  It seems I found a new chapter once or twice a week that filled a void in my understanding that was giving me trouble in my personal projects.

Even today, I went to it to look up some information on using scale-9 and discovered a whole wealth of information about skinning that I didn’t quite grasp the first time I went through it.  Even a year after first getting the book, it’s still providing value.  I expect there are other things in there I still haven’t fully appreciated.

This is a great book and I highly recommend this it to anyone, specifically beginning to intermediate level Flex developers looking to take their skills to the next level.